


Twenty Dollars

by KingMythos



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Marijuana, dadvid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 03:35:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19265107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KingMythos/pseuds/KingMythos
Summary: “What are you gonna spend it on, Max?” Nikki interrupted with glassy eyes. Max made a point to hold the note above and away from them. He eyed them both pompously, then a half-grin, half-grimace stretched thinly across his face.“I had an idea.”





	Twenty Dollars

Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States of America, flitted madly back and forth before Neil’s eyes. The boy’s expression paralleled that of the features etched upon Jackson’s face: lost, bewildered, and sort of generally forlorn.  
“Check it out. Pinched it from David’s wallet.”  
“Twenty bucks? Jeez, that’s four times what my parents would give me in a _week_ , and only if I vacuumed the whole house.”  
“Poor, poor Neil. In our capitalist society, do you really expect to profit from honest work?”  
“Yeah, whatever Max said! It’s a doggy dog world, don’t you know?” Nikki commented, having materialized from the shrubbery.  
“It’s ‘dog _eat_ dog’, Nikki,” Neil stated, for the sake of being able to correct someone, “besides, Max, there’s a difference between manipulating your way up economic and social hierarchies to profit from the working class, and straight up _stealing_. But, what do I know, I’m ten.”  
“Since when have you cared about the morality of my actions? Haven’t gone soft on me, have you Neil?”  
“Gone soft? Of course not!” Max flailed Andrew Jackson around again. Neil and Nikki followed it like cats watching a laser pointer. “I’m just anxious, you know, about getting in trouble.”  
Max watched with a half-lidded gaze as Neil wrung his hands together.  
“Aren’t you on medication for that now, or something?”  
“What are you gonna spend it on, Max?” Nikki interrupted with glassy eyes. Max made a point to hold the note above and away from them. He eyed them both pompously, then a half-grin, half-grimace stretched thinly across his face.  
“I had an idea.”  
“Ooh, what is it? Going to buy a bunch of fireworks and set them off in the mess hall—no, no, wait, the counsellor’s office? Or, are you going to rent a bulldozer and knock down the counsellor’s office? Or, or, or, buy a big cat online and release it in the counsellor’s office? I heard you could do that!”  
“Why are you so fixated on the counsellor’s office?” Neil asked, at the same time that Max said, “oh yeah? This twenty bucks said you heard that from Cameron Campbell.” Nikki shrugged and didn’t make an animalistic lunge for the cash, which answered Max’s question. 

“Really, though, twenty bucks is a lot of money. You’re basically rich, now,” Neil commented as the three of them ambled through the brush toward the lakeside. As they’d entered their last week of camp, an early autumn had set in, and left the grounds covered in a pleasantly crisp array of reds and yellows. If Max unfocused his eyes, it appeared as though the camp had been set ablaze, patches of flames around bases of trees, which traveled up trunks and erupted crowns into fireballs. Then, his eyes came back into focus, and the imagined crackles and roars faded back into birdsong and the distant exclamations of other children. Max kicked at a small pile of leaves, but he felt the kick was unsatisfactory, so he kicked again until all the leaves burst into the air as a collective.  
“Twenty bucks could get us a butt-ton of candy,” Nikki hinted, to which Max eyed her until her hopeful gaze dissolved.  
“There’s no way I’m spending this shit on the three of us. Twenty bucks can’t be divided into thirds anyway.”  
“Yes it can!” Neil protested, and began to furiously count on his fingers.  
“You guys can’t swindle me, I stole this dough fair and square, _and_ I stole it for a _reason_.”  
“Well, tell us what the reason is!”  
“Not yet, Nikki. I’d rather show you.”  
“Show us? Are we going into town?”  
“Nope. I have a guy who’s bringing the stuff to _me_. We’re supposed to meet him around here, right about… hmm, now, give or take.”  
“6.66 recurring! That’s a third of twenty!” Neil gasped unexpectedly, with the same energy as a kid who had said, ‘watch how long I can hold my breath!’ then disappeared below the surface of a pool to be forgotten.  
“Devil’s number,” Max sniffed, though said no more. 

“Hey, you three,” came a low voice from the bushes. Max approached with calm movements as the other two hung back, skeptical. “Come on, a little closer than that.”  
“You got… the _stuff_?”  
“Right here,” the voice responded, and the bushes shuffled. Max leaned forwards to inspect something the others couldn’t see.  
“Mind if I smell it?”  
“What, you don’t trust me?”  
“...No.”  
“Alright, whatever, go ahead.”  
Max took a moment to, presumably, smell whatever had been presented to him. He stood up straight again and reached into his pocket, revealing Jackson’s lost, bewildered, and generally forlorn features. Those large distant eyes, shadowed by a thick, pronounced brow, appeared to glint in disapproval as the note was passed between them.  
“Thanks, Nurf,” Max said nonchalantly, and Nurf hissed in response.  
“I’m not Nurf, dickturd. Rule number one, we don’t use names.”  
“Alright, whatever floats your boat, Nurf,” Max replied after the ziplock bag had been shoved in his pocket. Nurf grumbled and sank backwards, swallowed by the woods just as mysteriously as he’d emerged from them. Max approached Neil and Nikki, who both watched him in bewilderment. Max lifted his chin and looked down his nose at them.  
“What the fuck did you just do?”  
“Made you guys accomplices so you don’t snitch on me. I mean, you’re the least shitty people at camp, but you both know I’ll never trust anybody. If you say anything, it’ll come back on you.”  
“Wait, so did you just buy—” Neil lowered his voice to an anxious whisper, “— _illegal marijuana?_ ”  
“Damn right I did.”  
“Whoa, you smoke weed?” Nikki said, a little loudly. Max shushed her through his teeth. “I only heard about it this year. I heard it makes everything have rainbow colours and you see things!”  
“Nah, you’re thinking of acid, Nikki,” Max responded casually, as though he was somebody who regularly dropped acid. “And yeah, I smoke weed like, all the time. I’m pretty much a stoner.” Neil narrowed his eyes.  
“Well, _I’ve_ never seen you smoke before.”  
“That’s because I didn’t know I could trust you then. I can now. Hey, maybe I’ll even share some with you guys.”  
“Hell no, I ain’t touching that shit. It fucks up your life! I heard you totally black out when you smoke it and then do all sorts of crazy shit, like strip off your clothes at the bank.”  
“Guys, seriously, I can’t believe you’ve never tried weed. It just makes you all happy, and stuff. Not like alcohol, which makes you act stupid.”  
“You’ve drank alcohol, too? That’s so awesome,” Nikki responded. Max puffed his chest out a little bit as they toddled back up the hill.  
“Yeah, totally. I stole so much of my parent’s wine when I lived at home. They had no idea it was missing!”  
“Max, that’s kind of fucked up. I mean, you’re only ten. It’ll scramble your brain.” Neil wrung his hands as the three of them slipped into Max and Neil’s tent. Max fished in his pocket and lay the crumpled zip-lock bag between the three of them.  
“That’s not as much as I expected for twenty bucks.” Neil squinted at the tiddlywink of green stuff packed sadly into one corner of the bag.  
“Are you kidding? This shit will get you crazy fucked! I’m planning on smoking it tonight, up on the hiking trail. You guys can come if you want, I’ll let you take a hit.”  
“I’m not coming, and that’s final. I ain’t no snitch, but I don’t want to get in trouble, either. Besides, my brain is what got me this far, I’m not about to fry it.”  
“Alright, if you wanna be a nerd, that’s on you. How about you, Nikki?”  
“...I don’t know…” Nikki worried her lip and eyed the plastic bag. “Can I think about it?”  
“Well, sure. But I’m heading up there at sundown, with or without you.”

As the activities for the day wound down, the counsellors herded the campers into the mess hall for dinner and desert. Max took a seat next to Nikki, who had been busy flinging balls of mashed potato to the roof, and set his tray in front of him.  
“If you’re coming with, you better eat the rest of your mashed potatoes. Weed makes you crazy hungry.”  
“Hungry?” Nikki looked at her tray in thought. “Is it like a parasite that will eat all my food for me?”  
“Might feel that way,” Max stated cooly, poking his peas around with a plastic fork.  
“Oh, I don’t know…” Nikki shovelled a spoonful of potato into her mouth, and swallowed without chewing. “I’m always so hungry, anyway…”  
“Well, if you eat dinner, you’ll be fine.”  
“Won’t it get too dark to see when you want to come back?”  
“I’ll just wait for the sunrise. The high will last all night for sure.”  
“I’ll get too cold.”  
“Just bring your hoodie.”  
“I’m feeling kind of tired…” Nikki feigned a yawn. Max blinked at her, then narrowed his eyes.  
“You don’t want to,” he stated. Nikki avoided his gaze. “If you think it’s so cool, why don’t you want to try it?”  
“Because, well… I don’t know, it’s kind of… scary?”  
“Fine, if you and Neil wanna be nerds, that’s on you. But I’m getting high tonight, and that’s final.”  
“Well, tell us what happens!”  
“Please, I’ve done this a thousand times before. Nothing happens that I haven’t already told you.”  
“Alright campers, time for bed!” David announced, to be met with the dismal, half-asleep groans of hot-chocolate fuelled children. Max headed to his tent, and turned to watch as David ushered the last sleepy camper from the mess hall, while Gwen beelined to the counsellor’s office. Max ducked his head as he slid into the tent, where Neil already lay in his sleeping bag. Neil propped himself up on one elbow and conspicuously eyed Max.  
“So you’re seriously gonna do this?”  
“Uh, duh. It’s no big deal.”  
“How are you going to smoke it? Do you have… a _bong?_ ” Neil whispered. “Or, are you gonna roll a, y’know, a… _blunt?_ ”  
“Don’t you worry about that Neil.” Max kneeled and fished a lighter from beneath a stash of his stuff. Neil watched, a little intimidated, as Max tested the lighter. “Cool, still works, y’know, from _last time_ …”  
“Well, good luck,” Neil offered as Max pushed outside. “I’ll leave the inside flap unzipped for you.”

In the amber sunset glow, Max slipped behind the tents and faded into the shadows between the trees. He’d decided to spend a few minutes off the track so that he was harder to spot from camp, and then, once the trail curved behind boulders and greenery, he would emerge and follow the winding path up the mountain. There was a small lookout that had its back to the camp, which David had only taken them to once, before he deemed it unsafe after noticing a singular, likely decades-old can of beer crumpled up behind some rocks. Later that day, Max had heard David complaining to Gwen about ‘rowdy teenagers threatening the wholesome atmosphere of the camp’, whatever that fucking meant.  
Max’s palm clenched and unclenched in his pocket around the bag of weed, as though every few seconds he had to check if it was really still there. The bag had heated up in his palm and was a bit slippery to the touch, but Max refused to remove it from his pocket and wipe it on his hoodie, just in case anybody was watching him.  
As he ascended up the trail, the shadows around him grew longer and a little foreboding. Branches clutched at the air like talons, rocked by an autumn breeze that grew to be chilling. Max shuddered and wrapped his arms around himself, wondering if he should’ve worn another layer. Each footfall seemed to land heavier than the last, as the gentle lapping of the lake and the echoes of birdsong from the trees below died away, replaced with the dense, unsettling silence of the night.  
Max arrived at the location and sat on a large stone, overlooking the long highway which stretched both ways into a bleak, darkened obscurity. Civilisation was, even from such a vantage point, still unable to be seen. Max thought of home for a moment, then dug into his pocket to inspect the bag. A bead of his sweat dripped between the many folds of the crumpled plastic. He sighed and broke the bag open. He took a whiff — smelled the same as it had earlier. The smell conjured up further images of home, a familiar scent which would permeate around dinner time. He pulled out the lighter from his other pocket, and gazed at the two objects, looking slowly between his hands. In truth, he didn’t think he’d get this far.  
“Alright, how do I smoke this shit,” he muttered, and carefully dumped a small amount of weed into his palm. He attempted to pack it into a tight ball, but it crumbled and fell apart like dust. With his other hand, Max flicked on his lighter and grimaced. As he struggled not to spill the contents of his palm, and slowly brought the flame nearer and nearer to his skin, a noise behind him caused him to freeze. 

“Max.”  
_Shit._  
“David,” Max replied, and released his thumb from the lighter. The flame disappeared with a small click, and Max clasped his fist around the tiny amount of marijuana. Max refused to turn around, but he knew David’s hands were on his hips, and that he was waiting, quietly, for an explanation. _Well, two can play the silent game, fucker._  
“Max,” David repeated, after a dragged-out pause. “Would you like to tell me what you’re doing up here?”  
“Nothing. Just getting some air. Why the hell did you follow me all this way?” David didn’t respond. “Seriously, man! Can’t I get a moment of peace around here?!”  
With a shuffle, David moved to stand across from him, and Max fought the urge not to flinch, not having realized how close behind him David had actually been. Max furiously avoided David’s gaze, though in the corner of his eye he caught an entirely ambiguous expression which unsettled him far more than pure anger or disappointment ever could.  
“Are you sure you don’t want to tell me what you’re doing?”  
“I already told you, getting some peace. Thinking. Being introspective!”  
“That’s not what I heard you telling Nikki at dinner today.”  
_Fuck._  
“Oh, come on, David. I was joking!” Max finally met David’s gaze. Still just as unreadable, still just as unnerving.  
“Max,” David began, and took a seat on a rock across from him, “did you take money from my wallet?”  
“No…” Max grumbled, and shoved his hands in his pockets, which he dropped each handful into, so the items would be safe and undetectable. Max didn’t think David had seen what he was doing — he could still talk his way out of this.  
“I just ask because I’ve been missing twenty dollars since this morning, and happened to notice you were showing twenty dollars to Neil and Nikki not ten minutes after I lost it.” David’s voice was level and, though not unkind, was also not particularly warm. It was almost… _stern_ , which was a strange word for Max to use to describe pretty much anything David did. He furrowed his brow at the thought.  
“What a coincidence.”  
“Max,” David sighed, chin in palm, elbow on knee. “I know you took it, and I know what you used it for.”  
“Those false accusations could get you in some real trouble, there, David. Besides, what do you think I used it for, anyway, just out of curiosity?”  
“I know you bought pot from Nurf this morning.” _Pot._ It was a bit of an outdated term for marijuana, these days. Max had only ever heard it called weed by people who actually smoked it — from what he could tell, most other terms were the language of boomers who had never taken a hit in their life… funny cigarettes, Devil’s lettuce, Mary Jane. Pot, however, was different. It tumbled out of David’s mouth almost _tiredly_ , in stark contrast to Neil’s anxious uttering of ‘ _illegal marijuana_ ’. Max eyed David. If anybody in the world still actually called it the ‘Devil’s lettuce’, David seemed like the number one person to overuse that term. However, David appeared calm, relaxed, in fact, as he patiently waited for Max’s rebuttal.  
“...Fine. Yeah, I spent twenty bucks on a bit of weed. What gives? I’ve done it a thousand times before. Not like I was going to smoke it at camp.” Did David just crack a smile? No, certainly that was his eyes playing tricks in the dark. David was becoming harder to make out, as his darkened form faded into the endless fields a million miles below him.  
“It wasn’t very nice of you to pressure Nikki like that, Max.”  
_Does this guy have fucking super-hearing? How does he know all this?_  
“...Yeah, yeah. That wasn’t cool.”  
“It’s okay. You were just nervous about doing it alone.”  
“What?! Me, nervous? There’s no way I’m nervous!” Max glared at David, who was certainly smiling now, for his lips parted slightly and allowed his pearly whites to glint in the moonlight. It was a serene smile, rather than a self-satisfied smirk or a wolfish grin. Max continued to scowl.  
“First time, huh, Max?” 

They locked in a stare for a long moment. Max amped up his focus and studied every aspect of David’s face that he could, through the thickening blanket of dark between them. _Why the hell isn’t he angry at me, and how the hell does he know?!_ David, after a few moments, released an affectionate chuckle and slowly shook his head.  
“The fuck are you laughing for?!”  
“Can you show me what’s in your pockets? It’s okay,” David visibly fought off a wider grin, “you’re not in trouble.” Max frowned at the ground and kicked his shoe in the dust, irritated at the embarrassed heat that rose up his neck and burned his ears. Begrudgingly, he fished in his pockets, and pulled out the lighter as well as the bag. Some of the weed dust trickled from his pocket, but Max didn’t bother to save it. Too late to smoke it, now — David was going to flush it for sure.  
David took both objects with no hesitation, and Max found himself a little in awe, having expected David to pinch the corners nervously as though he had been getting his fingerprints on evidence. Instead, David broke open the bag with no thought, and Max’s jaw hung loose as David took a sharp inhale.  
“David—”  
“Why, what an interesting scent,” David commented, then licked a finger, dabbed at the marijuana dust in the corner, and then swept the dust onto his tongue. Max watched in pure shock. “Twenty dollars is a bit pricey for such a small amount of oregano, don’t you think, Max?”  
“Oregano?!” Max exclaimed, hoping that his objection to it would be enough to change David’s mind. However, David simply stared at him and continued to fight a grin. “Oh, for fuck’s sake… I smelled it and everything! Nurf let me sniff it, I thought for sure he wouldn’t have let me if it wasn’t the real stuff…”  
“Max,” David rubbed at his eyes and took a moment to control his breathing before he continued, “um, what was your plan, when, you know, you got up here? Did you have a pipe, or any rolling paper, or—”  
“I didn’t think…” Max’s sentence dissolved into an unintelligible grumble.  
“What’s that?”  
“I didn’t think,” he ducked his head entirely, his face now ablaze, “I didn’t think I needed that stuff. I thought if I just set it on fire and inhaled the smoke…”  
“And you thought you could hold it in your _hand_ and do that?”  
_God, he fucking saw that, too?_  
“Max,” David scrubbed his face for a moment, and Max’s expression twisted in shame and outrage that the very counsellor who he put such a great effort into tormenting for being a moron was now having to literally force himself to not laugh in the face of Max’s stupidity. “Max, it’s alright to have curiosities. You’re getting to that age where—”  
“Oh, cut the shit, David!” Max jumped up, fists clenched. “You clearly think I’m a fucking moron, so there’s no point in trying to give me a lecture about it! Just laugh at me and fucking go! Or is this my punishment, you sick bastard? Humiliation?! Honestly, fuck you, David! It’s not like you get it, anyway! You’re just going to lecture me on the dangers of drugs like every fucking adult I’ve ever met!”  
“Max, I was young, once,” David said vaguely, and held a gentle smile as Max worked to piece that together.  
“...You?”  
“How else would I have been so sure it was oregano? I made that mistake once, too—”  
“You?!”  
“—it’s a natural plant and, though I don’t approve of its use on impressionable, growing minds, I also believe in its benefits—”  
_“YOU?”_  
David let out a small giggle.  
“Well, don’t act as though I’m some sort of criminal!”  
“But, but, but—fucking you?! The very man who banned candy at camp, or, or, calls the police when you see gum on the sidewalk?!”  
“Well, though I do morally object to gum on sidewalks, I _don’t_ object to the use of marijuana. Sometimes I agree with the law, and sometimes, well, I think a few adjustments need to be made,” David said, a little sheepishly by the end. Max continued to gape like a fish.  
“So, so… how often did you smoke?”  
“Um,” David rubbed at his neck, the sheepishness increased.  
“No fucking way. Seriously, how often?”  
“...Let’s just say _often_ , and keep it at that.” There was a pause as Max processed this. “Max, I don’t want to lecture you. I know from personal experience just how unwelcome those sorts of talks are. But, I’d like to ask if you could maybe wait a few more years before trying any drugs, and, when you think you’re ready…” David trailed off with a conflicted expression. Max edged forwards on his stone. “Goodness, I might get in trouble for this, but…”  
Max waited silently for David to continue his train of thought. Even the slightest movement, he felt, would potentially throw David out of this strange accepting mindset, and turn him into a scolding authority figure like every other adult in his life. Max didn’t even blink.  
“...I think that, as long as you’re in a safe environment, and have tested any substances, that... certain natural drugs are okay to experiment with… and because I have that sort of _equipment_ … and I know first aid, um… well, when you’re a bit older, and you _really_ think you’re ready to try, I’d like you to come to me. That is, if you’re still attending camp by then.”  
“You’d give drugs to a kid?!”  
“I would offer a safe environment to a _teenager_ who was going to try drugs whether or not I had a say in it,” David corrected, and Max was unsure whether he imagined the ever-so-slightly defensive tinge to the counsellor’s tone. “And I suppose, yes, I would purchase the substance for you. Or I could pick some of my own—”  
“You fucking grow drugs?!”  
“—oops.”  
“David!” Max’s eyes actually _shone_ , “that’s, like, kind of… cool? Jesus, I can’t believe I just said that to you.”  
“I sometimes grow a small, indoor marijuana plant, it’s really no big deal,” David chuckled self-consciously. “I grow all sorts of things in my garden! My gardener texts me once a week to tell me how everything’s going. Last winter was rather hard on my cucumbers but thankfully he replanted a bunch for me to come home to, and apparently the cherry tomatoes have really blossomed!”  
“Okay, normally I would not give a single shit about your garden, but I’m actually curious. Does your gardener tend to your weed?”  
“Oh, no, I um… I don’t grow any when I’m working at camp. It’s sort of my secret.”  
“Why’s it appeal to _you_ , then? Don’t you, I don’t know… get high off nature, or something?”  
“Technically, it _is_ getting high off nature. It, well, helps me relax and be creative. That’s actually why I was concerned about _you_ , Max. It’s one thing to respectfully and safely use a drug in order to experience a unique feeling, and another thing to try and impress your friends.”  
“I wasn’t…”  
“Max, though this drug is often harmless, it’s still important to learn about it. You could’ve hurt yourself up here — you’re on a dangerous cliff, you were using a lighter without adult supervision, and on top of that, were attempting to use a substance that you’re simply too young for. Neil and Nikki could have gotten hurt as well, if they hadn’t decided to stay at camp. What if this _had_ been marijuana,” David gently coaxed, “and you didn’t react positively to it? After all, if you take a drug while feeling nervous, it’s only going to make you feel worse, not better. What if that happened out here, while you were all alone?”  
In any other scenario, Max would’ve protested at David’s lack of faith in him. After all, he had played with fire plenty of times and kept it completely under control. But… David looked so… so _concerned_ , perhaps even _upset_ , and in a moment of resolve, Max felt his body deflate.  
“I’m sorry, David.” Max felt his eyes prickling. _Are you fucking kidding me?! Am I seriously about to cry in front of fucking David?!_ “I guess I didn’t think about all that stuff,” he sniffed, attempting nonchalance.  
“It’s okay. I’m just glad I caught up to you before anything happened. You must be freezing. Come on, let’s get back to camp.” David stood and instinctively offered his hand, then a moment later retracted it, remembering that the child beside him was _Max_. As they headed down the trail together, the circular beam of David’s flashlight swam across the oceans of trees, their branches gently dancing in the breeze. David’s light drove away the shadows around them, which had priorly seemed so threatening to Max.  
“David?” Max asked, hesitantly, after a long silence.  
“Yes?”  
“Um… are you gonna tell Gwen?”  
“Not unless you want me to.”  
“So I’m _really_ not in trouble? You won’t call my parents or anything?” David stopped on the trail for a moment, and appeared to be gathering his thoughts. Max looked up at him, at the small circles of torchlight reflected in his eyes, as he cast his gaze off into the distant night. It was clear, even to Max, that David was contemplating something beyond his ten-year-old grasp. He surprised himself by a lack of internal indignance. Instead, that common feeling was replaced with an entirely new one… the sense of being protected.  
“No, Max,” David finally responded, with a pleasant, resolved hum. “I’m not going to call your parents.”

**Author's Note:**

> david really said smoke weed every day huh


End file.
